In 1801, Olivenza, a town that has belonged to Portugal over half a century, joins the Spanish monarchy. This one tries to impose its politics and a different model of coexistence which will lead, finally, to a modification in its people’s social habits that, despite putting up resistance, will end up accepting.
Politically speaking, the 19th century in Spain is defined by the War of the Oranges (1801), the French invasion which resulted in the Peninsular War (1808 -1814), the people’s uprisings supporting Charles, against the reign of his brother Ferdinand VII and Isabelle II, which led to the Carlist Wars, the proclamation of the First Republic and, after a period of provisional government, the Restoration of monarchy.
What’s really interesting is to know why people from Olivenza die in the century already mentioned. Thus, we will analyse and describe the demises’ causes, outlining the epidemics collected in the records of death of its two churches: Santa María del Castillo y Santa Maria Magdalena, in which we find a total amount of 20590 demises (10320 infants), being 1831 the year which presents the highest number of cases (448) that also coincided with the crude death rate (TMB) (67,75‰). Even though in general there is a huge lack of data in parish records, we will provide more complete data than the ones presented by other populations of Extremadura, such as Llerena, Zafra and Zahínos, because in all of them, the demises’ causes begin to be recorded from 1830 on.